A University of Lethbridge history professor is challenging people to think differently about borders and the way we understand them.
Dr. Sheila McManus will present a Public Professor Series talk titled Borders are Stupid on Thursday, where they will draw on their research as a borderland historian to explore how borders get meaning and power.
“We kind of imagine that they mean something – we imagine that they have created a nation state with sovereignty and a national identity and off we go – it’s one of the main ways we organize or thinking of the world but it is a really recent way of thinking about the world,” they said.
McManus questions whether people would think differently if they consider that borders are arbitrary and recent creations – if they had to assign their own meaning to them, rather than the meanings that are often perceived as old and permeant.
McManus focuses on connections that do not stop at the border, such the Blackfoot nation, crossing the border between Canada and the United States.
“What if we paid more attention to the connections, rather than the differences. Would that change how you think about borders?” They said. “I want to create some doubts in peoples’ minds about what you think borders are and what you think they are doing for you and then show – what if they create as many problems as you think that they are solving?”
In their research, McManus also looks at issue that do not stay within borders, such as climate change, and how they could be dealt with differently. “We are not going to address climate change if we continue to see our world and our borders as these little, self-contained pieces of the world.”
The talk will be about 45 minutes, with time for conversations. It will be hosted at the Sandman Signature Lodge on Nov. 23, starting at 7 p.m.